Woodworking Projects

Below are some photographs of some furniture I built. The main big things I've built so far are a bookcase and a loft bed. I decided to build each of them because I finally have a place to do so (thanks to my wife's sister and her husband for letting me hang out in their garage.) Additionally, if you've ever priced *quality* wood furniture, you know that it's very expensive. Plus, when I build my own stuff, I can make it *exactly* how I want. That's not entirely true, as I don't have the skill or the patience to do things *exactly* how I envision them, but it's always fun to see what I wind up with.

You can click on the pictures and get a bigger view. The pictures should open in a new window.

• measurements: 6' tall x 7' wide x 4' deep
• total time to design: 10 hours
• total time to build: 25 hours
• tools used: circular saw, drill, screwdriver, various wrenches, router, jigsaw

the complete set

• measurements: 7 ft tall x 4 ft wide x 18" deep

• total time to design: 2 hours

• total time to build: 10 hours

• tools used: circular saw, drill, screwdriver

A view of the loft bed from the "climbing" side. You'll notice the ladder built into the side, and the train set up on the desk. Soon, there will be a computer there, but I'm too busy (and poor.. mostly poor) to build one right now. Also, I don't know if you can see this, but the bolts are all recessed, to help eliminate injuries. Look on the left side, about midway between the door knob and the top of the picture.

Andy thumbs his nose at the world in this photograph, as well.

You can see one of the lights mounted on the underside of the bed in this photo. This was necessary since the sheer size of the bed blocks out most of the room light. You can kind of see the curve of the desk here, as well.

The red yellow, and green bins are not part of the design, they just happened to fit almost perfectly underneath the desk.

The completed, and full, bookcase. Note that this is a bookcase for a child's room, so there's lots and lots of skinny tall books, which necessitated making large shelves. Since it was designed to last the next 30 years, there's plenty of room for more books (as evident by the mass of toys on the upper shelves.)

Another view of the desk.

Visible in this picture is the second of the two attached lights. Also visible is a shelf thing, on the bottom left of the picture. This is another one of those things that just happens to fit perfectly beneath the desk. It's almost as if I had planned all this!

You can see how the desk curves back to the side. It's some quality work, if you ask me.

Anyhow, that's about all there is to see in this picture.

You can get a pretty good idea on the shape of the desk here. It dips in in the middle, so you can sit close to it and use either side of it from one seated position (assuming you have a spinning chair.) There will be a computer on the left, someday, and an area for art/school/etc on the right.

Andy raises his arms in triumph, shouting "Hooray! I can touch the ceiling!"

Another view of the bed in relation to the bookshelf.

Here you can see the guard railing that surrounds the entire sleeping area. This is important if you don't like broken bones. A neat feature about the railing is that it lifts out, kind of like the sides of a wagon, for ease of bed-making, etc. Ideally, it would lift out easier, as it takes a couple minutes to wiggle it in and out. The other rails *could* lift out, but are secured with screws for added safety. The front rail has pins that lock it in place.

Andy's giving some sort of hippie peace sign in this photo.

This is not really a woodworking project, per se, I did have to build the frame out of wood. I used 1/4" chunks of rock tile for the surface, broken up into pieces and then cemented down to the wood table base.

The Patio Table

It's a small table, as I have a small balcony. Four people can comfortably sit around it and put their drinks on it and stuff, but probably only 2 people could eat a meal at it. That's fine with me, though, since I don't like to eat food outside for some reason. I also only have 2 chairs.

Here's another angle of the same thing. There's not really much to write about this thing...

Here's a nice big picture of the top.

Hey! It's another picture of the table!

Here you can see that the legs are made out of an old bar stool. It wasn't my first choice, but it will have to do until I get a lathe.